a good surprise?

The bathroom is probably as gutted as it's going to get without the aid of a plumber and an electrician. A plumber because we can't figure out how to disconnect the pipes from the bathtub, and an electrician because the medicine cabinet has about forty wires running to it with no apparent way to disconnect them that wouldn't leave them exposed. (Exposed wires in an increasingly soggy room just doesn't sound awesome to me.)



The first thing I did this morning was to tear down the cardboard that was behind the cement board that held the tiles that were hidden behind the cultured marble in the shower. (Aside: This house is at least 50% cardboard. If it ever catches fire, it's gonna go up in seconds.) Behind the cardboard? Beadboard. All over the bathroom. It's the horizontal kind, but if you need proof that can look as dope or doper than the vertical kind, check out these pictures of a renovation in Connecticut. I find this sort of hilarious, because the ceiling of the entryway is covered in those cheap faux beadboard panels you can get at Home Depot. If the walls are beadboard, you'd think the ceilings would be as well. I guess if I go and buy a ladder, I can find out. I'm hoping for the absolute best sort of irony: beadboard over plaster over beadboard. But anyway, the bathroom.



The beadboard's been patched in numerous places where doors and windows used to be, and carelessly broken away in places behind the shower to make room for the pipes and to allow a recess for a nasty old shower shelf. Below a wainscotting rail, it had vinyl-veneered cardboard glued to it, but what's above the rail is just covered with drywall. I'm thinking the stuff below the rail is probably not worth trying to save, but the stuff above, given a good paint job, could be nice.

I found the same beadboard behind the gaping hole in the master bedroom and I'm curious now whether the beadboard walls are all throughout the house. If so, I'm really tempted to blow in some insulation between that and the siding and paint them instead of drywalling everything.